Team FALT
by fireofnextlife
Summary: Fenrir is a socially awkward and almost perpetually anxious wolf fuanus, who decided to leave his home in Atlas to train at Beacon. He ends up on a team of unlikely friends. Follow him, Aria, Luna, and Tristan as they make their way through their four years at Beacon.
1. Chapter 1

Humble Beginnings

Fenrir Astrel was never one for crowded places. The air assaulted his nose with a hundred different scents, perfume, cologne, dust; his ears flattened against his silver hair as the ever growing din of chatter grated at his mind, he was able to hear every conversation without even trying. He watched the other potential students on the airship with his left eye, the yellow orb scanned the crowd. His right eye was covered by an eye patch. Yes, it was safe to say that the wolf faunus was absolutely hating every minute of this trip. He stuck his hands in the pocket of his hoodie and did his best to not look like he was in hell.

It wasn't that he hated the fact that he was surrounded by humans, even given all that they had done to faunus in the past, he realized that many were still good people. He simply couldn't stand being stuck in a crowd like this without any of his friends or at least someone he knew. He was the only one who decided to go to Beacon, all his other friends, his "pack" had decided to stay in Atlas and join the army.

He grimaced to himself, "Why did I think that I would be able to handle this myself. I can barely talk to the guy at the dust shop when I need to get new ammo or upgrades." He was snapped out of his self-loathing when he noticed that there was someone coming his direction. He quickly looked up to see if the person was perhaps coming to talk to him. He looked down again just as fast when he saw the boy's face was turning a sickly green color. "At least I'm not the only one who's not enjoying the trip," he thought to himself.

He looked out the window trying to ignore the person standing next to him. He looked over every now and again to see if the boy was looking any better, however he seemed to only be getting worse. Fenrir was holding a bottle of medicine for air sickness in his hands but was having trouble working up the courage to strike up a conversation with the blond boy. He took a deep breath and was about to say something when a hologram of a stern looking woman appeared.

Fenrir was so preoccupied in how to best approach the boy that didn't notice that he had lost his chance to help as said boy was already puking his guts out all over the floor. "Well looks like this isn't going to help anymore," he though putting the bottle of motion sickness pills in his pocket. As he looked down he noticed that he was standing in a small pile of vomit. "Hello and welcome to Beacon," a hologram that suddenly appeared started saying but Fenrir wasn't listening he was too busy trying to hold back his tears of frustration, anxiety, and fear.

"This is just a great first day," he said as he departed the airship. I don't know how I'm ever going to get on a team if I can't even talk to one person." He decided to go sit on one of the benches that lines the walkways around the school and try to calm down. Unbeknownst to him there was someone that had seen his entire ordeal.

When she saw the wolf faunus, Aria Rentel though nothing of how he looked, though she did have to say he seemed very cute, especially considering he had a big bushy tail or how he obviously wished he wasn't here. No, what she noticed was how lonely he looked. She saw him fighting with himself over giving the blond boy what looked like some medicine and she also saw the frustration and unshed tears when he would up in a puddle of vomit. She followed him off the airship wanting to talk to him.

She watched him from a distance waiting for a good moment to try and talk to him. She saw him sit down on the bench and decided this was a good time to try to talk. "I don't know what I should do," she thought, "I want to talk to him but I don't want to scare him or make him nervous." She worried for a few minutes before deciding that the best idea was probably to simply go up and talk to him.

Fenrir was still sitting on the bench sulking when his ears twitched, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching him. He looked around so that he could see who was coming. What he saw however startled him, it was a beautiful girl with crimson hair that hung past her waist. Her eyes where a piecing grey. She was looking at Fenrir with a smile that caused the wolf fuanus to blush.

"Hi, my name is Asrin," she said holding out her hand.

"F-f-f- Fenrir" The boy stammered taking her hand but looking down at his feet. "Why in the name of dust would a girl like this talk to me," thought.

"It's nice to meet you. Mind if I share this bench with you?"

"W-w-w-what?" he stammered.

"I said do you mind if I sit next to you?"

"No, go ahead," he spoke in almost a whisper as he moved over to make room for the girl.

"Thank you," she said sitting next to him.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, all the while the socially awkward wolf faunus was having a small panic attack. Fenrir decided to play with his scroll to try and take his mind of the beautiful girl sitting next to him. When he opened the device he noticed that the entrance ceremony was only a few minutes away.

"OH CRAP," he yelled jumping up from the bench, "WE HAVE TO GO OR WE"LL BE LATE!"

Aria jumped up to and they both started sprinting towards the main building of the school. Even for a faunus Fenrir was exceptionally fast, so when he reached the main building and turned around he wasn't expecting Aria to be there, right behind him. He wasn't use to having someone who could match his pace, though it did seem to have taken a toll on her given how hard she was panting and the slight sheen of sweat on her brow.

"I have to… find my…. friends they're… probably wondering where I went" Aria panted.

"Oh, ok," Fenrir said, feeling a little down trodden, "I guess I'll see you around then.

"Yeah. Good luck tomorrow during the initiation. Bye" she said as she walked off into the crowd.

"Bye," he called after her.

Fenrir barely listened to whatever Professor Ozpin was saying, he was too busy thinking of how happy he was that he actually talked to someone. Even when it came time for everyone to go to sleep in the main hall he was still bubbly. Normal on a night before and big exam or test he would be up all night worrying and thinking of possible ways for it to fail, but this night he went right to sleep and had a peaceful rest all night.


	2. One Step Forward

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It was morning and Fenrir was not doing well. His nerves were so bad that he barely ate and was practically shaking. The only thing that kept him calm was the thought that soon he could be on the battlefield. He nervously tensed his hands around Fang and Claw his twin lever action shotguns, both of which had bayonets. He had handcrafted his weapons with loving care and attention to detail, they were his pride and joy. Feeling the rough texture of their grips calmed him down instantly. He decided to get some food in him before his nerves came back.

As he ate he noticed a face coming his way. He made to raise his hand to wave and was about to call her name when he say her sit at a table away down with some other people. He put his hand down and stared at his food. "How could I possibly think that she would even remember me," Fenrir thought to himself.

"Will all first years please report to the cliff side for initiation," a voice announced over the PA system.

"At least I can get finally this over with." Fenrir got up and started to move towards the exit when he heard someone call his name.

"Fenrir! Hey it's me Aria, remember, from yesterday?"

Fenrir turned and almost let his disbelief reach his face, "Hey Aria, how ….how's it going? You ready for the initiation?"

"You know it" she reached behind her back and brought out a weapon that almost made Fenrir drop his jaw in surprise. She was holding a double bladed war axe that stood almost as tall as herself.

"If you like that wait till you see this," she said as she sent some aura into the weapon causing it to turn from an axe into an assault rifle. Aria smiled at the look on Fenrir's face. "I call her Bastion."

"Whoa. Just whoa," that was all the dumbstruck Fenrir managed to get before he got swept up in a crowd of people rushing to make it to the cliffs in time.

"Fenrir, good luck out there," Aria called after him. She saw him give her a thumbs up and then was part of the sea of people.

Aria smiled all the way to the cliff she liked Fenrir and hoped that they would end up on the same team this year. She was also smiling because she knew that know she got to fight Grimm. She might have seemed like the kind of girl that would complain for hours if she so much as chipped a nail but in reality she was an adrenaline junky, relishing in the thrill of comabt. As she arrived Professor Goodwitch was informing all the students to take their places on one of the metal pads.

"I can't wait," she thought gleefully, "Let's see what everyone back home has to say when they see how well I did in the initiation." She became even giddier when she heard Professor Ozpin start explaining about the landing strategies. "Did he say we're going to be falling? That's AWESOME!" she thought when she realized that she was already launching skyward.

"Yippee," she cried as she brought out Bastion. Aria let herself get to the height of her ark then proceeded to unleash a hail of gun fire into the air causing her decent to speed up exponentially. Giving her dear Bastion a mighty swing as she closed in on the trees below her she managed to stick it into the side of an older tree stopping her herself from going any further. Swinging up to stand on the handle of her weapon she used this as a lookout point to observe the other students. She saw one girl was using glyphs to safely make her way to the ground, while another used her weapons gun form to slow her forward momentum and give her the chance to hook onto a tree after changing her weapon into a scythe.

"Interesting," she purred, "looks like there are some good pickings in terms of partners. She brought her attention back to her surroundings as she saw a very familiar looking faunus with an eye patch falling near her little lookout point. Aria watched intently trying to see exactly where he was going to land. She saw him land safely and decided to start making her way in his direction. Jumping down to the forest floor she folded Bastion into its carrying mode and started running. It was then that she heard a roar that was followed by the retorts of gun fire and howling. It was coming from where Fenrir had landed. She broke into a full sprint praying that she made it in time.

When Aria reached Fenrir the gun fire had stopped but not because the Grimm where dead, he had been smashed against through about five trees and lay bleeding against a large stump. Surrounded by a large pack of Beowolfs, it looked like it was the end for him. Thankfully Aria had gotten there before the Grimm decided to deal the death blow. Looking at the injured faunas caused her to snap. Her aura flared as she pulled out Bastion and switched it to its axe form.

Aria was so angry that she activated her Semblance not caring for how much it drained her aura. She swung Bastion with all her might sending out a devastating shockwave that cut most of the Beowolfs in half, those that had survived had only done so by jumping into the air at the last second. Instantly felling the effects of releasing so much aura she decided to switch to her assault rifle and shot the rest of the Grimm before they hit the ground. Making taking a second to see that there were no more targets in here general vicinity she ran over to Fenrir who was still slumped against the tree stump.

"Are you okay?" she asked noticing the worry that slipped into her voice. She had already seen so much death at the hands of those beasts, she wasn't sure she could handle anymore. Already seeing flash backs to that time, the house bathed in blood, those terrible gapping jaws, the scent of rot and death.

"Uhnnn." Aria was brought back to the real world by that small noise. She looked up and noticed that Fenrir was regaining consciousness. The relief she felt was almost overwhelming. As Fenrir opened his eyes she remembered what Professor Ozpin had said before they started.

"Your partner will be the first person you make eye contact with when you reach the forest."

She stood up, dusted herself off, and reached her hand out to the now awake boy standing before her. "I guess we're partners now," she smiled as she spoke. Aria looked at Fenrir who appeared to be processing what was happening. What happened next shacked the young huntress-in-training, Fenrir knocked her hand away and lunged with his claws out.


	3. Chapter 3: Partners

Partners

Fenrir's stomach dropped as he felt himself being lifted into the air as the jump pad launched him skyward. He found himself thinking that he rather did not enjoy this experience as he fell towards the forest. He decided to try and land in a clearing so not take any unnecessary damage from the trees.

Pulling Fang and Claw form their holsters on his thighs he fired them off, using their recoil to rapidly slow his decent. He changed his grip on the weapons so that he was holding them upside down and when he reached the clearing he drove the bayonets into the side of a tree. Having stopped his momentum he dropped down and decided to start moving in the direction Professor Ozpin had indicated the temple to be. He hadn't even made it five feet before they were on him. The black fur, the almost razor like claws, those soulless red eyes hidden behind the white masks.

The speed they at which they set upon him would have been the end of most people, so imagine their surprise when the Beowolves found themselves facing down the barrels of his weapons right away. Thanks to his aura and his natural predatory instincts he had sensed them before he even landed in that clearing. The first Beowolf pulled up short in shock as it saw him raising Claw to face it. Fenrir smirked as he pulled the trigger, "This is going to be fun," he thought as the creature's head disintegrated. He brought Fang up to meet the claws of another Beowolf. Flipping Claw to chamber another round he thrust its blade into the beast's chest and fired. The monster was flung back into one of its comrades sending both into a nearby tree.

Fenrir's smirk slowly turned into a grin as he fought, he loved the sensations he experienced during battle, it was the one time that he never felt nervous or stressed. Simply put, it was the one time that he felt truly alive. He was almost in a haze as he killed the Grimm one after another. He was so focused on it that he didn't notice an alpha Beowolf coming at him from his right side, where his eye was covered by the eye patch. The monster smashed into him with such force that he was sent across the clearing, crying out in pain as he was struck again causing him to smash through five trees.

Fenrir knew that he was in trouble, even with his aura protecting him from most of the attack he had still taken a lot of damage. Looking around he spotted his weapons a few feet away. He tried to stand but a spasm of pain brought him to his knees. He barely had time to register where the pain was before the Beowolves surrounded him. "So this is how it ends huh," he spoke with bitter sadness filling his voice. Slumping against the stump of the tree he had land next to he closed his eye, reading himself for what was coming next. He felt the hot, putrid breath of the Beowolves on his face then a sharp pain against his head as one of the beasts struck him and then, nothing.

He was stirred from his unconscious state by the sound of gun fire close by. He tried to open his good eye but was still having trouble getting his body to do what he wanted.

"Urgh," he said as the pain in his body came back. Slowly opening his eye he saw Aria standing over him holding out her hand.

"I guess we're partners now," she said with a smile on her face. Fenrir was taken aback for a second but then he saw something that made his blood run cold. The alpha Beowolf had pretended to be dead to get the drop on Aria when she had her guard down. Fenrir didn't have time to think about the pain coursing through his body or that he didn't have Claw or Fang with him. He turned his fingernails into claws, an ability that faunus that shared traits with predatory animals could do, and strengthen then with his aura. Pushing Aria aside he lunged at the monster as it pounced toward the girl. His claws pierced the beast's chest with astounding force. Twisting his hand for good measure he ripped it out of the Grimm chest along with its heart. He threw the heart aside and then collapsed when he was sure that the threat was abated. Aria caught him before he hit the ground.

He looked up to her smiling, "thanks partner."

She looked, "You saved my life."

"Just returning the favor"

She laughed, "Well then let's see about getting you fixed up."


End file.
